Castro upsets Paralympic champion at wheelchair fencing World Cup

Castro landed hit after hit with little resistance from Feng who managed to score just five points across the match.

The match was a repeat of final from the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games with Castro showing he has what it takes to beat the talented Chinese fencer with just under 500 days to go to the next Paralympics.

Watch all the action from Thursday back on Youtube.

France’s Maxime Valet represented the very best of French fencing, making it onto the podium behind Feng and Castro with bronze alongside Poland’s Michal Dabrowski.

Thailand’s Saysunee Jana won her seventh consecutive World Cup gold from the women’s epee category B, extending her unbeaten run which began in 2020.

The London 2012 Paralympic champion and Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist overcame Japan’s Anri Sakurai in the final.

Despite missing out on the gold, Sakurai was delighted with equalling her best ever performance from the epee and improving on her bronze from the last World Cup in Pisa, Italy, just last month.

China’s Lanzhu Ao, who is making her return in 2023 having been out since 2019, claimed bronze. Italy’s European silver medallist Rossana Pasquino grabbed her latest podium, also with bronze.

World and European Championships bronze medallist Edoardo Giordan repeated his golden performance from the first World Cup of the season in the men’s sabre category A.

The Italian saw off a challenge from Rio 2016 Paralympic silver medallist Richard Osvath from Hungary for a place in the final.

Giordan’s opponent for gold was Germany’s European silver medallist Maurice Schmidt, a fencer who is really beginning to show his talents in the sabre at the age of just 23.

Both men fought hard for the advantage but it was Giordan who just had the edge.

China’s Paralympic champion Hao Li was beaten by Schmidt in the semi-finals and settled for bronze alongside Osvath.

It was an all-China final in the women’s epee category A.

Xufeng Zou faced Haiyan Gu for gold, with the former emerging the victor.

Spain’s Judith Rodriguez continued her great season with bronze – her second of 2023 in epee. Ukraine’s Yevheniia Breus joined her on the podium.

The 2023 wheelchair fencing World Cup continues on Friday with the men’s foil category A and B and women’s sabre category A and B.